Not that paracord is a bad material for sleeving, but actual sleeve is easier to work with and, in my opinion, better looking. Personally, I'd head over to http://ftwpc.com/cables-and-sleeving.html and grab some FTW sleeve and heatshrink. (If you weren't aware, FTWPC is run by OCN members.)

Other than that you'll need some decent scissors, a lighter, and your sleeving tool of choice (either the second or both of the first two here). A heat gun is optional for shrinking the heatshrink, but the lighter would work as well.

As far as the process itself, you should be able to find a guide somewhere.

Not that paracord is a bad material for sleeving, but actual sleeve is easier to work with and, in my opinion, better looking. Personally, I'd head over to http://ftwpc.com/cables-and-sleeving.html and grab some FTW sleeve and heatshrink. (If you weren't aware, FTWPC is run by OCN members.)

Other than that you'll need some decent scissors, a lighter, and your sleeving tool of choice (either the second or both of the first two here). A heat gun is optional for shrinking the heatshrink, but the lighter would work as well.

As far as the process itself, you should be able to find a guide somewhere.

so the crimping tool isnt needed?
how many feet of cord do i need for a hx850 roughly? and how much heatshrink to order roughly?

No, the crimping tool is for repairing or making your own connections.

I'd say 150-200' ought to be plenty for doing most of the cables. You may want a second opinion on that. Also, figure about 1' of heatshrink for every 10' of sleeve.

Paracord tends to snag and doesn't expand, both of which can make it difficult to work with. Also, after using Techflex Clean Cut, I'd choose good sleeve like that over paracord every time. However, paracord is cheap enough that there's not much harm trying it anyway.

It is "fabric" based; made of plastic, but feels like fabric. That means knots and pulled strands are a possibility. Paracord is also very shiny.

I would go to your local hardware store and pick up a few yards of the stuff, sleeve one of your madular cables and see if you like it. From what I've seen, paracord is usual shipped as 1000 feet. That would be WAY more than enough for a 850. To be safe, you should take all of the cables you want to sleeve, measure them, then multiply by how many cables there are.

You can get heatshrink from a hardware store or online. I've read that 3:1 is good, but I know that Nils at MDPC sells 4:1 heatshrink which is great. Nils is also a pretty nice guy from our correspondence through email. He cares about his customers.

For tools, you can make your own ATX extractor, but Ithink you will need to buy a Molex remover.

Hi. I'd like to start off by saying that t-ramp nailed it on the head. Paracord is a textile based material, while our sleeving is a thermoplastic polymer. The AX 850W uses around 204 ft of sleeve with 282 pieces of heat shrink to single-sleeve every single wire. The 850 HX should be right about the same.

As for the tools, I cannot in good conscience recommend anything except the best, which is why we started offering the original Molex extraction tools in the first place. We could have introduced a $10 extraction tool, but would have been bombarded with emails wondering why it wasn't working right or why they kept breaking, so we figured we'd just do it right the first time. The round extraction tool is not made or designed by Molex. We tried to source those out directly from them too.

For shrinking the heat shrink (say that 3 times fast), I use a butane-powered torch and move quickly, so as not to scorch the heat shrink and have to start over.

You asked about the crimping tool. It's not necessarily just for making your own extensions. It's saved my behind more than you'd think and has paid for itself many times over. I can't tell you how many times I've pulled the wire right out of a poorly crimped connection and had to recrimp it myself. Every single one of our crimping tools is calibrated by hand to guarantee a perfect crimp every time. We actually have the whole kit on sale if you buy all 3 tools.

If there's anything else you need, please feel free to shoot me a PM or email.